Following US$20 million of investment, Vipal Rubber has started production at its new tread rubber and pre-cured tread factory in Argentina. Located in the Perez, province of Santa Fe, Argentina, the new factory will supply the Argentine and export markets.
Work on RH Claydon’s new 20,000 square feet warehouse in Launceston, Cornwall is almost complete. RH Claydon (RHC) representatives are aiming for the location to be fully operational in January 2021. For them, more space means more stock to supply the tyre wholesaler’s “already growing customer base in the south west of the UK”.
The first truck tyres made at Continental’s greenfield factory in Clinton, Mississippi, US are being delivered four years after the company broke ground on the project. The Clinton plant is Continental’s first new plant for the truck tyre business globally in more than 10 years. It produces large truck and bus tyres for the North American market and will employ 500 people by the end of 2020. Clinton is Continental’s second location producing truck tyres in the US. The other can be found in Mount Vernon, Illinois. According to the Continental, more than 280 employees collaborated safely to deliver the first shipment of tyres.
Green Distillation Technologies (GDT) is expanding the capacity of its Warren, Western New South Wales, Australia plant with the installation of an additional processing module. According to the company, this will double the existing production output capacity. It is proposed to install the balance of additional modules next year to reach the annual processing capacity of 19,300 tonnes of tyres that a fully developed facility with six operating modules would handle.
In January 2019, the ground was broken on the US$614 million Roadbot tyre plant in Abu Dhabi. Local news sources described the project as a milestone in the capital of the United Arab Emirates as recently as January 2020. However, the project has since hit a roadblock as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tyres & Accessories has seen documents that show how recent progress has been limited, though initial steps seem to have progressed well. Specifically, the official letter from Roadbot Tyre Industries dated July 2020 confirms that all the necessary planning applications, architectural designs and structure drawings have been approved and completed. Yet critical machinery work came to a standstill in March 2020.
Specialty tyre manufacturer GRI is adding a new mixing facility in the Mirigama Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) in Sri Lanka. The new mixing facility will have capacity to produce 200 tonnes day, up from the current capacity of 50 – 60 metric tonnes a day, and is being interpreted as a pre-cursor to increased tyre output.
GKN Wheels’ multi-million-pound investment programme at its Telford factory has resulted in the achievement of record targets. Despite a number of obstacles, not least the impact Coronavirus pandemic has had on the plant’s operational capabilities, the new manufacturing plant is now producing more than three times as many wheels as the old plant, with 55 high-quality off-highway wheels now being manufactured every hour. With the new line now fully operational, the old lines and assembly cells have now been decommissioned and disposed of.
Double Coin has expanded its distribution infrastructure in the USA with the addition of a new warehouse in Houston, Texas. The new facility, Double Coin’s largest warehouse in North America, began operations on 15 September 2020. It includes office space, 29 dock doors and two drive up ramps. According to the company, the warehouse will serve the growing demand for Double Coin’s comprehensive range of truck and OTR tyres.
Bush Tyres is set to open three new locations during the next couple of weeks. First off, the company is opening retail centres in Norwich and Immingham. In addition, Bush Tyres has invested in a new 70,000 square foot warehouse as well.
Having received approval back in June, Qingdao Sentury Tire has successfully completed its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and is now listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (China) as of 11 September 2020. 11 per cent of the company’s shares were valued at 1.31 billion yuan (162 million euros; £149.859 million) by investors, resulting in a theoretical total valuation of 1.47 billion euros. The offered shares offered were oversubscribed 2887 times over. But what is the company planning to do with its newly-raised funds?
Ceat Limited commissioned the second phase of its Nagpur plant in India’s Maharashtra state on Monday. The tyre maker says the two-wheeler tyre capacity added by this expansion project will be “be ramped up over a period of time, based on market demand and our overall capacities.”
Goodyear’s decision to exit UK retreading in 2015, followed by Continental’s 2016 takeover of Bandvulc and Vaculug’s 2018 acquisition by Zenises Group changed the face of the UK retreading business in just three years. However, while the market has both contracted and consolidated in recent years, a core group of key retreading production bases remain. And while the largest retreading businesses often gain the spotlight, it is worth mentioning fast-growing operations as well. Sussex-based Seryt Tyres is one such company, so Tyres & Accessories got in touch with director Kevin Gillin and marketing manager Olly Townsend in order to find out more.
Hubei Linglong Tire Co. Ltd., Linglong Tire’s fourth domestic Chinese manufacturing base, celebrated the production of its first truck tyres on 21 November. Dignitaries from Jingmen, Hubei, China, and Hubei Linglong Tire witnessed this historical moment together.
In January 2019, construction of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first tyre plant began. Now, the best part of a year later, sources operating in the Middle East and Africa region report that the Roadbot factory, which is being built in KIZAD’s China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone by Tirebot, is nearing the completion of its initial stage of development. During the ground-breaking of the plant in January, company representatives said the factory would become operational in October 2020. As much as US$600 million is reportedly being invested in the project.
Vipal
RH Claydon
Continental AG
GDT
GRI
GKN
Silksheen Photo, Bush Tyres